Thursday's Talons: Cinderella's Winter Scene

Currently listening to: Gypsy Girl by Wet, Wet, Wet

Good morning ladies,

Today I have a winter scene with a dash of girly glitter to show you.

I started by painting my nails with Sinful Colors Cinderella, a pretty blue shade that shines with orange, pink and purple shimmer.  I didn't take a picture of that stage as this is one polish which looks awful on me; I can only ever use it as a base.

 I then topped it off with some Tony Moly glitter and stamped a snowman and snowflakes using a white Easy Paris polish and image plates Bundle Monster BM 318 (snowman) and Born Pretty Store QA58.

 I liked the stamping here, especially as it was the first time I'd used the snowflake design, but overall I just felt this manicure was too pale for me.

What do you think girls?  Does your skin tone ever ruin your manicures?!

Bye for now,

Laura

Mid-week Manicure: Kawaii Glitter Bows

Currently listening to: Awake by Josh Groban

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I would like to show you this manicure which came about by accident but which I absolutely loved because it was so fun and cute.

 

I started with this no-name, very light pink Color Club polish which I got in the All About French set.  This was the first time I tried this shade and I was pleased by how well it applied.

 I then applied a coat of pink Tony Moly glitter.

 My final step was to add a white bow to each nail.

 Like I said in the introduction, I absolutely loved this manicure because it was so fun but I only wore the bows because I knew I would be staying indoors!  I don't know if I'd wear the bows out in public considering their staying power is rather limited.

What do you think girls?  How do you get your 3D nail decorations to stay on your nails?

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Sinful Colors Cinderella

Currently listening to: Falling Slowly by Josh Groban

Hello dear readers,

Last week I heard the amazing news that Sinful Colors polish is now being sold in the UK at Boots :-)  I think I've had Sinful Colors Cinderella on my wishlist for well over a year so I rushed to Boots as soon as I could.

Cinderella is what I would call a sky blue glass-flecked polish, full of pink or orange shimmering particles depending on the light.  I originally wanted it as a base for my Tony Moly blue glitter and also so I could do a Cinderella shoe manicure using the Bundle Monster shoe image plate.

Before Cinderella came to the ball, my original base for the Tony Moly glitter was Barry M Blue Moon, which you can see is a paler polish containing traces of blue shimmer.

I would never wear Blue Moon on its own as it's too pale for my skin tone and isn't very flattering but I would be happy wearing Cinderella on its own since it is a lot brighter.  If I were comparing the two, I would say Cinderella is easier to apply.  It's also cheaper, with 15ml selling for £1.99 compared to Barry M's 10ml for £2.99.

Finally, Tony Moly blue glitter with Cinderella, the combination I've been dreaming of.

What do you think girls?  Have you tried Sinful Colors polish?  Which colours would you recommend?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Fingers: Oh My Glitter

Currently listening to: Misty Mountains by Jonas Kvarnstrom

Good morning ladies,

A few weeks ago I used Essence Oh My Glitter in a manicure and a few of you mentioned how much you liked the colour.  I do too but it's also a great polish for layering: 

 

Here we have Oh My Glitter as a base for Tony Moly purple glitter.

 The purple glitter has a milky base which ever so slightly transfers the look of Oh My Glitter.

 I think they make the perfect combination.

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Saturday's Stamping: Glitter Daisy NOTD

Currently watching: Glee

Good afternoon lovely ladies,

It's a gloriously sunny day here in Manchester so what better way to celebrate than with a pretty glitter daisy manicure?

 

My base is two coats of the Accessorize duochrome Pink Spice covered with a coat of Tony Moly pink glitter.

 

 

It's the same glitter I showed you on Thursday.  Recently I really like using it as a subtle topper.

 

I then stamped a flower in the bottom corner of my ring finger nail and the top corner of my thumb nail using Easy Paris 48 and Bundle Monster plate BM03.  I've had that plate for years but I do believe this is the first time I've used it.

I then finished the manicure off by placing a yellow dot in the centre of each flower using a dotting tool and Nails Inc Spitalfields.

What do you think girls?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Thursday's Talons: Glitter Hearts NOTD

Currently listening to: In Her Eyes by Josh Groban

Good morning girls,

Today I have a pretty purple manicure to show you featuring Barry M Prickly Pear as the base.

 After painting my nails with two coats of Prickly Pear, I decided to add a layer of Tony Moly GS10 glitter.  As you can see in the bottom picture, the red, gold, pink and silver glitter is suspended in a milky base so adding this to my purple base made Prickly Pear paler than its original lavender shade.

 I don't think I've ever stamped over glitter before so I thought it might be nice to make an accent nail stamping a heart pattern using Barry M Blackberry and Bundle Monster plate BM317 (definitely one of my favourite plates).

What do you think girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

2012: New to my Nails

Currently watching: Mary's Bottom Line

 

Hello lovely ladies,

 

As the year draws to an end, I thought it would be fun to recap the new brands of polish I added to my collection in 2012.

 

First up: Color Combos

 

 

Ebay purchases: Saffron London

My one and only Revlon:

Max Factor with the polish that took the blogging world by storm, Fantasy Fire:

As much as I wanted Revlon Whimsical, it was never released in the UK.  Luckily for me I found a dupe courtesy of the Korean brand Tony Moly:

 



Courtesy of a friend, I tried Models Own and NYC.  I now have quite a collection of Models Own polishes :-)



 

Treating myself to purple holos from a-England and Catrice:







Marks & Spencer's nail polish range caught my eye:



 

And finally, courtesy of Santa, Butter London:

 

There you have it girls, those were all the brands that were new to my nails this year.  Did you try any of them for the first time too?  What brands did you add to your collection this year?

 

Bye for now,

Laura

Wednesday's Winter NOTD - Glittering Snow

Currently watching: The Big Bang Theory 

Good morning girls,

Today marks the first day of my winter manicures and I'm starting with something simple:

 

 

This is two coats of Tony Moly GS08 layered over Barry M Matt White.  GS08 is a very sheer blue glitter polish which I've previously worn over Barry M Blue Moon but I decided to use white underwear for a slightly more wintery look.

What do you think girls?

NOTD: When Tony Met Kiko

Currently listening to: The Sun by Maroon 5

 Good morning girls!

Did you miss me?  I missed you!  But I hope you enjoyed all the guest posts that were featured on my blog during the past few weeks.  Once again, thanks to all the lovely ladies who helped me out with them.

I came back from Amsterdam on Monday at midnight and went straight back to work on Tuesday so evenings have been spent catching up with your blogs, unpacking, and tidying my study room now that I can finally hide all my exam notes and textbooks in a cupboard.  Out of sight out of mind ;-)

I had thought that once I came back I'd get straight back into painting my nails and sharing my manicures with you.  Unfortunately, that hasn't gone to plan.  I cut my nails about a month ago because they were getting too long for me to use my calculator (!) and I couldn't risk failing my exams because of arithmetical errors.  Plus, I thought that while I was studying it would be better for me not to be distracted by nail polish.  And, as an added bonus, I also thought a few weeks without polish would help to improve the condition of my nails.  Wrong!  Without polish, they have just deteriorated, so much so that I had to cut them again a few days ago.  They're too short to paint now.  So I don't know what to do, in terms of this blog.  In the meantime, here's the manicure I wore for my flight to Amsterdam:

 

 

This manicure features two coats of Kiko 332, a deep Cadbury's chocolate shade of purple, and a coat of Tony Moly purple glitter.

 

The first time I wore this Tony Moly polish, I layered it over Barry M Berry Ice Cream, which you can see here, but this time I thought I'd try it over a darker shade.

I think the glitter polish does alter the colour of the Kiko polish slightly but I just love how vibrant the different colours of glitter are.

What do you think of this manicure girls?

Bye for now,

Laura

Friday's Fingers: Tony Moly Purple Glitter NOTD

Currently listening to: Makes Me Wonder by Maroon 5

Hi girls!

Today I'd like to show you the third and final polish from the Tony Moly set I ordered:

 

Purple is my favourite colour so I was really excited to try this one.

 

 My first step was to apply two coats of Barry M Berry Ice Cream then I applied a coat of purple glitter.

 Out of the three polishes, this one is the most colourful.  The other two polishes tend to contain three colours of glitter whereas this one has at least six: green, pink, gold, blue, red and silver.

What can I say about this polish girls?  I absolutely love it.  I am so pleased I bought this set.  I actually mattified this manicure and thought that looked fabulous (I love mattified glitter) but unfortunately my computer deleted this pictures so I will have to wait until I do this manicure again to show you how it looks with a matte topcoat.

What do you think of this manicure girls?  And which of the Tony Moly glitter polishes is your favourite?

Bye for now,
Laura

Monday's Manicure - Tony Moly Pink Glitter NOTD

Currently listening to: The Sun by Maroon 5

Good morning lovely ladies,

Today I'd like to show you a manicure featuring one of my new Tony Moly glitter polishes, this time the pink shade:

I decided to layer it over Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream so the photos show two or three coats of Barry M (application is awful now that the bottle has only 1/3 left) and one coat of pink glitter.

 Oh I love it.  The polish contains red, gold, pink and silver flecks of glitter and looks really pretty.

 What do you think girls?  Are you a fan?

Bye for now,

Laura

PS  There's only a week left until my giveaway closes!  Enter here!

Birthday Nails - Dupe of a Dupe

Currently listening to: This Boy by James Morrison

Good morning girls!

Today is my birthday so I thought I'd try one of my new Tony Moly polishes for my birthday manicure :-)

 Out of the three colours I ordered (blue, pink and purple), this is probably the one I was most excited about because from the images I'd seen, it looked like a dupe of Revlon Whimsical, which is in turn a dupe for Deborah Lippmann Glitter in the Air but sadly not available in the UK.

I don't own either of those polishes so I can't tell you how this polish compares but that doesn't matter; I love this one.

 

The polish is sheer so I layered it over two coats of Barry M Blue Moon instead of experimenting to see how many coats would be required to make it opaque.

What do you think of this polish girls?  Do you think it is a good dupe?

Bye for now,

Laura

PS Don't forget to enter my second blogiversary giveaway!